3/31/2017

"Mrs. Packard": Using It or Losing It?

Olivia D'Ambrosio in and as "Mrs. Packard"(photo: Mark J. Franklin)

Bridge Repertory Theater has the much deserved
reputation of presenting unusual and provocative plays in the four
years of their existence, and this remains true with their latest
production Mrs. Packard in their new home at the
Multicultural Arts Center in East Cambridge. The play is based on a
relatively unknown but important true story of a woman whose place in
feminist history should by all accounts be on a par with the
suffragettes who secured the vote for women in this country.
Playwright Emily Mann's mission was to celebrate this overlooked
heroine and establish her rightful place in that history (or
herstory). In this co-production by Bridge Rep and Playhouse
Creatures Theatre Company, she has successfully managed just that,
even though the result is less drama than polemic. Her 2007 work
takes the true tale of Elizabeth Packard (referred to by everyone in
the play, including her husband, with her more formal title rather
than her first name) who was institutionalized in an insane asylum
for the unforgivable crime of questioning her Calvinist preacher
husband's beliefs in public. While difficult to believe today, in
1851 the State of Illinois passed a law that enabled a husband to
have his spouse “entered or detained in the hospital on the request
of the husband...without the evidence of insanity required in other
cases”. The play is set in the State of Illinois from 1861 to
1864, the years of Mrs. Packer's virtual imprisonment.

In the title role, Bridge Rep's Producing Artistic
Director Olivia D'Ambrosio creates a stunning character who dominates
the play with the extraordinary breadth of her performance, perhaps
even beyond the playwright's words. It's easily D'Ambrosio's most
memorable work, as she navigates the perilous tightrope between
proving her sanity while not relinquishing her own integrity. The
task is made difficult, seemingly impossible, by the insidiously
corrupt role of Dr. McFarland (superbly portrayed by Producing
Artistic Director of Playhouse Creatures Theatre Company, Joseph W.
Rodriguez) and the unbending rigidity of her husband Theophilus
Packer (Steven Barkhimer). In the asylum she finds herself in the
company of other women equally sane, and a staff that ranges from
brutal, as in the case of Mrs. Bonner (Annabel Capper), to the more
humane, as in the case of Mrs. Tenney (Shanae Burch). Only after
several years does the opportunity to convince others of her sanity
arise, in the person of Asylum Board Member Mr. Blackman (Matthew
Zahnzinger), who perceives in her the passion that was incorrectly
viewed as insanity, and her using of reason as opposed to losing it.
The entire cast of eighteen is uniformly brilliant. It should be
noted that Burch in particular creates a very believable character
with more humanity than might be expected; the same could be said for
Zahnzinger, who provides yet another meticulously crafted role in a
varied career. When Mrs. Parker is finally freed, after initially
being held as a prisoner in her own home, and finally publicly
cleared, she resolves to do all in her power to use her restored
freedom to do good for others in similar situations.

And so she did, with her subsequent books that exposed
the deplorable conditions in the era's institutions. She continued
to be an outspoken champion not just for women's rights in this
country but also for reform of those same institutions for the
“mentally ill”. This production, ably directed by Emily Ranii,
with clever use of the space by Scenic Designer Jon Savage and
Lighting Designer E. D. Intemann, as well as appropriate Costume
Design by Chelsea Kerl, is another memorable collaboration by the
estimable Bridge Rep in its relatively brief existence.